How To Repair A Fieldstone Wall

At this habitation in Waltham a stone wall had collapsed during a heavy rainstorm – fortunately it missed the auto that was parked below! Every bit it turns out this wall was dry out laid and built up against an existing concrete wall. Nosotros at Concord Stoneworks would not have suggested this method given the circumstances. A dry stone wall tin can exist the most cost effective manner to offering favorable aesthetics and a sturdy long lasting structure, nevertheless, in this case the construction was already in place. This wall was purely decorative in which case some sort of stone veneer would take been the most advisable method.

fieldstone wall waltham, ma

For whatever reason the builders decided to build a dry stone wall. They gave the new rock wall a thickness of ~two feet and built it against the concrete wall behind. This could have been a acceptable method, still, they did not stack the stones properly and gravity in combination with hydrostatic pressure caused information technology's collapse. Edifice a dry stone wall takes a unique skill set in which the stone stonemason lays each rock and so that the strength of gravity works in i'south favor to hold the wall together. In this case we would have wedged the stones and dilapidated the wall back for strength. Nevertheless, this builder built the wall directly up and fix the stones level. Being on downwards sloping hill, the stones eventually slipped out and the wall collapsed.

The homeowner, non wanting to rebuild the entire wall, tasked us with rebuilding just the complanate portion. For this we removed the remaining base stones and rebuilt the wall with mortar and by wedging the stones and battering the wall slightly back. The goal was to build a sturdy wall that still matched the existing. By using minimal mortar we were able to mimic the aesthetic of the dry laid wall while giving the new portion additional back up.

Fieldstone Wall Repair - Waltham, MA